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Monday, February 18, 2013

Vatican
City, 17 February 2013 (VIS) – More than one hundred and fifty
thousand people attended Benedict XVI's second-to-last Angelus in St.
Peter's Square today. The Pope, who appeared at the window of his
study at noon, focuses his Sunday meditation on Lent, "a time of
conversion and penitence in preparation for Easter."

"The
Church, who is mother and teacher," he said, "calls on all
of her members to renew their spirit, to reorient themselves toward
God, renouncing pride and selfishness in order to live in love. In
this Year of Faith, Lent is a favourable time to rediscover faith in
God as the fundamental criterion of our lives and the life of the
Church. This always implies a struggle, spiritual combat, because the
spirit of evil, naturally, opposes our sanctification and tries to
turn us from God's path. … Jesus, after having received
'investiture' as the Messiah―'anointed'
by the Spirit―at his Baptism in the Jordan, was led by the same
Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. On beginning his
public ministry, Jesus had to unmask and reject the false images of
the Messiah proposed to him by the tempter. But these temptations are
also the false images of humanity that have always harassed our
consciences, disguising themselves as convenient and effective, even
good proposals."

"The
core of these temptations," Benedict XVI explained, "always
consists in instumentalizing God for our own interests, giving more
importance to success or material goods. The tempter is sly: he
doesn't push us directly toward evil, but toward a false good, making
us believe that power and that which satisfies our basic needs are
the true realities. In this way, God becomes secondary; He is reduced
to a means, becomes unreal, no longer counts, disappears. In the
final analysis, faith is what is at stake in temptation because God
is at stake. In the decisive moments of our lives, but on closer
inspection in every moment, we are faced with a choice: do we want to
follow the 'I' or God? Do we want to seek out selfish interests or
the true Good, that which is truly good?"

"As
the Church Fathers teach us, temptation forms part of Jesus'
'descent' into our human condition, into the abyss of sin and its
consequences. It is a descent that Jesus follows to its very end,
even to death on the cross and the hell of extreme distance from God.
… As St. Augustine teaches, Jesus has taken temptation from us in
order to give us victory over it. Therefore we too have no fear of
facing the battle against the spirit of evil. What is important is
that we face it with him, with Christ the Victor," the pontiff
concluded.

After
the Marian prayer the Pope thanked everyone for their prayers and
affection, which he has felt in these days. "I ask," he
said, "that you continue to pray for me and for the next Pope,
as well as for the spiritual exercises that I will begin with the
members of the Roman Curia this afternoon." He also greeted the
"beloved city of Rome", seeing that among those filling St.
Peter's Square there was a delegation from the municipality headed by
the mayor.